Haitian Vodou and sexual orientation

Homosexuality in Haitian Vodou Contrary to what most people think, Vodou is not a religion, it's much more than that. vodou, Haitians would often say, is life. It does not come with rules on how one should live their life or not but about understanding the consequences of one's actions in relation to the Loas. Vodou does not have a mandate on one's sexual orientation one way or another. There may be people who identify as homosexuals who practice vodou but this in no way implies that Vodou condones homosexuality or the idea of sexual orientation. Vodou is based on the principle of polarity and therefore is guided by the idea of the positive - negative which in terms of gender can translate into male-female polarity as basic to nature and life. Vodou spaces are inherently tolerant and there is no one at the door asking about one's sexual orientation or personal activities as pre-condition to enter that space. There are no vodou sunday Masses to attend nor prominent temples etc. Rather, a vodou space is defined by kinship ties and it is those ties that would define who get admitted to a ceremony and the rituals that give it life year round.

Haitian views of homosexuality

Vodou is an ancestral spiritual practice and is lived at the level of the family, at the kinship level especially in the countryside of Haiti, the bedrock of Haitian vodou. Because it is an ancestral practice, giving birth and furthering the family line from generation to generation is essential to the immortality of ancestors. Children are central to most African spiritual practices. They are the future. In Haitian vodou there is even a loa for children, the marassas (twins) who embody the divine nature of children. Vodou as ancestral worship does not pressure women to reproduce and children are seen as a blessing: a child is an ancestor returning to this reality. In that way, while vodou may be accepting of a homosexual person, homosexuality itself defies the very principle of ancestrality in vodou as in other African spiritual practices. Westerners should be careful not to impose and project their views on gender and sexuality onto vodou, a practice that has been and continues to be persecuted and mis-represented in the media.

Some people would like to believe that in Haitian Vodou, male homosexuals are seen as under the protection of the Erzulie Freda, the loa of love and beauty. However, this is not an accurate interpretation. The loas are above sex and gender. They are spirit and/or energies. Erzulie Freda expresses the divine feminine and can possess both males and females regardless of whether they are gay or not, black or not, children or adult. The documentary "Des hommes et dieux" presents interviews with several people who feel Erzulie Freda made them gay. It is interesting that there is no one claiming that the hot, more rigid and disciplinarian Petro loas like Bossou and Lenglensou made them gay or lesbians. Erzulie Dantor is not the patron of lesbians: she loves all of her children regardless; she is a fiercely protective mother and the experience with Erzulie Dantor whether one is male or female, gay or not, is the same. The loas do not have sexuality, nor gender. They are Spirits that operate on the masculine-feminine polarity or positive-negative polarity. All attributions of sexuality to the loas come from westerners who project their own ideas onto a non-western ancestral practice that they do not understand.

Relationship between loa and gender identity

Again, the loas do not have gender identity: they cannot be reduced to current political battles about gender especially from white westerners who are seeking to validate their ideas by turning to Vodou. This is just cultural appropriation.

== Reference: Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti (McPherson, 1983) André Rigaud, Secrets of Vodou (City Light Publishers, 2001) Leslie Desmangles, Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti (University of North Carolina Press, 1992)